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Fred Stolle

Bio

Fred Stolle is program manager for WRI's Forest Landscape Objective, working on forest governance, forest changes, and their impacts on climate change, and biofuels issues in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.

He started as a Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote sensing specialist at ITC (Netherlands), UNEP (Nairobi) and UNESCO (Jakarta). He lived 2-years in Kenya where he was team-leader for the production of a coastal Atlas for Kenya, and lived for 4 years in Indonesia working on forests and land-use change issues.

At WRI since 2003, Fred's focus is on the development in Southeast Asia (focus on Indonesia) of a decision-making environment where reliable, accurate and current information on forest and timber resources and related decisions are continuously and publicly available (Transparency) and that actions by the government are taken based on this information.

Recently, he was also involved in advising the Indonesian government on the inclusion of reduced deforestation programs in the UN Climate framework (UNFCCC). Fred is also involved in several international processes in Asia as the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) initiative, the Asian Forest Partnership (AFP), the Roundtable of Sustainable Oil palm, and the world-wide UN FAO Forest Resources Assessment.

People in Indonesia, Singapore, and parts of Malaysia are currently suffering from debilitating levels of haze resulting from forest fires. Air quality levels in Singapore have deteriorated to the worst levels ever recorded on the island, while local airports in Indonesia and some schools in Malaysia have had to close. Almost all of the recent fires (June 12-20) have occurred in Sumatra, an island in western Indonesia.

While there’s been heated debate on the location, cause, and nature of the fires, WRI has compiled some initial data that reveals that there are some patterns. Relatively few fires have occurred in protected areas and selective logging concessions. Furthermore, half of the fires are burning on timber and oil palm plantations. Although it is illegal for companies in Indonesia to start forest or land fires, several companies have used fires for land clearing in the past. It will be important to gather more detailed information about the exact location of the fires and their causes, which could have important implications for the companies and government agencies involved.

A Look Inside the Forest Fire Data

WRI gathered information from NASA’s Active Fire Data, which uses satellite data to pinpoint the location of fires in near real time, together with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry’s concession maps for oil palm, logging concessions, and timber plantation licenses. We counted the number of NASA fire alerts in each concession in Indonesia and tabulated the results.

Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a bold and courageous decision this week to extend the country’s forest moratorium. With this decision, which aims to prevent new clearing of primary forests and peat lands for another two years, the government could help protect valuable forests and drive sustainable development.

Enacted two years ago, Indonesia’s forest moratorium has already made some progress in improving forest management. However, much more can be done. The extension offers Indonesia a tremendous opportunity: a chance to reduce emissions, curb deforestation, and greatly strengthen forest governance in a country that holds some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems.

Boosting Achievements from Indonesia’s Forest Moratorium

Indonesia ranks as one of world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, largely due to the clearing of forest and peat lands. The forest moratorium aims to address this problem by prohibiting the award of new licenses to clear or convert primary natural forests and peat lands to agriculture or other uses. This will encompass an area of over 43 million hectares of land. Forest users with existing licenses are still allowed to operate in these regions, and there are several exceptions to the rule.

In May 2010, Norway agreed to contribute up to $1 billion towards reducing deforestation and forest degradation and loss of peatland in Indonesia, which now account for more than 80 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The “Letter of Intent” is a promising first step, yet the two countries must still settle key details of the agreement. Below is WRI’s analysis of the Letter of Intent and recommendations for what should be addressed next.